Abstract: We take a novel perspective to studying group and team leadership by examining the core dyad within a larger collective—an unexplored social phenomenon that could change how we study groups and teams. We argue that social collectives (groups or teams) naturally resolve status conflict stemming from prestige hierarchies by creating a core dyad (a leader and a sidekick) that direct the activities of the collective. We test our ideas in two contexts, using different methodologies: a qualitative study of children at summer camp and a laboratory study of teams engaged in a business task. Our results support our arguments, demonstrating the prevalence of core dyads within groups and teams, the speed at which they are created, and the impact on the team.

Chris Stanton (Harvard Business School)

Title: The Power (of) Lunch and the Role of Incentives for Fostering Productive Interactions

Abstract: Despite the perceived productivity benefits associated with co-worker interactions for knowledge transmission, little experimental evidence exists on the efficacy of organizational practices to induce these interactions or whether they translate into output. This paper provides evidence from a field experiment on incentives and non-monetary processes meant to encourage knowledge-sharing through employee interactions. We randomly paired over 650 sales agents, assigned them to four different treatments alongside an off-site hold-out group, and measured their individual productivity. The treatments included a monetary incentive; structured meetings between partners; a combination of monetary incentives and structured meetings; and an internal control group. Productivity gains are larger and more persistent in treatments that incorporate structured meetings. The productivity gains for agents that received the combined treatment are larger than those of either individual treatment but smaller than the sum of the individual treatment effects, which suggests an element of substitution between these treatments.